February Break Activity Guide

Posted: February 2024

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February Vacation is always a tough one for me and it’s fast approaching!

It’s different from Thanksgiving or Winter break where these school and daycare closures are based around holidays where typically the gathering of friends and family provide some built-in entertainment and activities for my daughter.

Also, it’s freshly off the heels of Christmas and our budget is usually pretty tight as we bounce back from me going rogue and buying extra presents “from Santa” for our daughter or adding additional people to our gifting list in what feels like an Oprah moment of: And….you get a gift, and you get a gift, and you get a gift.   

Bringing myself to splurge during this vacation break is just…not going to happen.  So I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do a week’s worth of activities for under $250 for the week for a family of 4.  And, drum roll please….I was able to come up with a week’s worth of activities for $213!!!  

I’ve broken these activities up into two categories:  

• Out and About Activities
• At-Home Activities

Now, for the activities that require passes, reservations, supplies etc.  I highly suggest securing those as soon as they become available because…well, it is vacation week and all.

A sample schedule is all the way at the end of the blog along with a supply list of the activities if doing any of the at-home activities interest you.

I hope you are able to take away a couple of activities to make your February Vacation more enjoyable!   If you choose to add something from this guide into your February break, I would LOVE to hear from you!  Leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram!

Out and About Activities

Pineland Farms: 

Pineland Farms is our place for adventuring! And if you have been following me for a bit, you know I’m going to find a way to get this amazing place into our February Activity Guide.  I’ve already blogged about it last year so please check it out for a detailed explanation of this wonderful place.  

Some ideas here to make Pineland Farms into a day long adventure are:

• Reserve a farm pass. The Education Barns are open all year and passes are $6 per person (and little ones 2 and younger are free). Don’t forget that on certain days, the Morgan Horses barn is open too!
• Reserve a lane at their bowling alley (lanes are $25/hour for 4 people).
• If there is snow, they have a great sledding hill that is open to the public for FREE.  You can also rent sleds at their Outdoor Center for $5/day along with a skating rink.
• If there is no snow, the Dunn School is across the street from the market and they just added new playground features (and they have a nature playground tucked into the back left corner).
• Bring a bagged lunch and a thermos (Stanley is our favorite) of cocoa to make this adventure even more affordable! Or, if doing lunch out is an option, their market is a fantastic lunch spot with GF options!

Total Cost: $44 per family of 4 ($24 for the Farm Pass and $25 for an hour of bowling) and with a BYO lunch!

Open Swim Opportunities:

Swimming is a great opportunity to burn off some energy and a fun family event that is very affordable.  Some pools are even offering fun aquatic obstacle courses for those with solid swimming skills (I’m looking at you, Bangor YMCA and the Richards Pool in Cape Elizabeth!) 

And..here is the best part!  If you are not a resident of a town with a community pool, you can still access the facilities by paying just a slightly higher fee than their resident fee.

Also, all YMCA locations in Maine offer day passes (and reciprocal use passes if you have any out of towners visiting who are members at their local YMCA).

Total Cost: 

• $22 per family of 4, on average, to access a community pool.
• $30-40 per family of 4 to access a pool through our local YMCAs.

Nature Trail Opportunities:

I’m talking about nature walking, walking trails, etc.  Nothing too challenging and definitely trails that do NOT require technical gear!  Given our Winter here in Maine this year, many of the trails that I walk in the summer are only slightly covered with snow, making them pretty accessible.

With that said, trail walking is very different than in warmer weather.  Please do your research and be sure that you have base and mid layers along with a good outer layer on.  Wool socks and hats along with waterproof mittens are essential!  As always, avoid layering in cotton WHENEVER possible.

For this winter with little snow, I recommend the Keen Kootenay boot.  It’s a waterproof boot that has a great tread and toe box for outdoor nature walking and clamp ons and hiking poles don’t hurt here either.

Also, packing a thermos of hot cocoa goes a long way in making it more enjoyable! 🙂

Now for the trail recommendations….

Have you heard of the Outdoor Movement Project?  Jill McMahon is the founder of the Outdoor Movement Project, which is an organization that promotes family-friendly hiking trails throughout southern Maine.  

She is also the author of Southern Maine Trails: A Guide to 100 hikes for Any Season, Any Age, Any Ability.  Her list of trails is comprehensive and her reviews of the trails are so helpful.  I have been in touch with her plenty of times when I’m interested in getting out there with a little one in tow and trying a new trail.  She is a wealth of information and a fellow colleague in special education!

Hint:  There may be a collaboration between the Outdoor Movement Project and The Wandering Chickadee coming this spring! 🙂

Library Passes:

Many libraries around the state of Maine offer free and discounted passes.  I blogged about this last month.  You can find a pretty comprehensive list of libraries that offer free and discounted passes on the blog. 

While many passes available are outdoor-based (state parks, Coastal Botanical Gardens, etc.), libraries do offer Children’s Museum passes (and some even offer 50% discounted passes to Boston attractions).  Libraries I have researched have passes available to the following Children’s Museums:

-Children’s Museum and Theater of Maine in Portland

-Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor

-Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover, NH

-Western Maine Play Museum in Wilton

Total Cost: 

• $32 per family of 4 when accessing Library Passes for the Children’s Museum of Maine
• FREE for a family of 4 when accessing Library Passes for the Discovery Museum
• $20 per family of 4 when accessing the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire
• FREE per family of 4 when accessing the Western Maine Play Museum

Library passes for children’s museums may be hard to reserve so I encourage you to do this as far in advance as library policies allow.  Now, if you are not lucky enough to get passes from your local library.  Check to see what discounts the children’s museum you are interested in offers!  Many offer discounts to veterans, active military personnel, those who access EBT benefits, and teachers.

Now, maybe heading to a Children’s Museum during a school vacation doesn’t sound like a good time to you (I don’t blame you), don’t forget that libraries usually continue with the regular programs, or even add special programs, during school vacation weeks. 

Also, even if programs are on hiatus during February Break, libraries are magical places.  Don’t forget the power or cozying up a good corner of your library with your kiddos some children’s books.  We can easily spend 2 hours reading books, coloring, puzzling, and playing games at our library…. So check out what your library offers you!

Total Cost:

• FREE per family of 4 when checking out your local library programs.

At-Home Activities

Here is a little known fact about it, I love a good homemade sensory kit.  Like…I really enjoy putting them together!  I’m going to include  

I think they are really fun to make and actually VERY AFFORDABLE to do despite what you see on Instagram and Etsy for the cost of pre-made kits.  I’ve also included links for all the ingredients you need to make these sensory bins below.

In order to make these kits, there is a little prep work needed to make them affordable.  The more items you can incorporate from your kitchen, your kiddo’s play room, the better, and cheaper, this overall cost will be.  And remember, if you have to order supplies, you will have PLENTY extra for another round of sensory activities.

So, before we get to the activities, here is the prep work:

Homemade Play-Dough Recipe:  

I can take NO CREDIT for the recipe below.  I received this recipe as part of a children’s event put on by Birth Roots.  And…it’s a FANTASTIC recipe!  I would do at least three batches so you can get the colors we want for the activities.  We will need blue, green, brown (or natural).  For one of the batches, split it so that you can get a batch of blue play dough and a batch of green play dough. Also, if you buy the ingredients listed here, you will have PLENTY of it to make play dough in the future.

• Ingredients:
  •  Flour
  • Cooking Oil
  • Cream of Tartar
  • Food Coloring (you are going to want to make blue, green, and brown (or natural) play doughs for these activities)
  • Salt (you will need two of these if doing more than 3 batches)

When dough is completely cool, I like to wrap it in plastic wrap and then seal it in a plastic baggie until ready for use.

Now, if making homemade play dough is not your jam, need not worry.  If you are a local Mainer, hit up your local Reny’s for some good deals on the Play-Doh brand.

• Total Cost: $20 for materials

Colored Rice: 

For this recipe, I have landed on my preferred recipe which is really a 1:1 ratio of rice and vinegar and I really prefer gel food coloring over regular food coloring.  For this activity, two colors are preferred.  I was trying to go with a Valentine’s Day theme for the colors but my daughter wanted to go purple and orange so…Mardi Gras it is!  You go with whatever colors you like!

The recipe is:

• 8 cups of white uncooked rice
• 8 teaspoons of white vinegar (try not to go over as your rice might have a vinegar smell to it)
• Gel food coloring (eye this)
• Plastic baggies
• Wax paper or Parchment Paper
• Cookie Sheet

Combine 4 cups rice,  4 teaspoons vinegar, and food coloring into a baggie and shake, shake, shake.  It will take a couple of minutes for the rice to become fully dyed.  Repeat with the 2nd color in a new baggie.  When you open your baggie to see how the coloring is working, you will have a vinegar smell to your rice when you are mixing it.  That’s OK.   Add a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper to a large cookie sheet and lay rice out paper to fully dry.  Allow for 24 hours to dry.

Hint: Stick in the oven or another pet/kiddo safe place to dry.  *Just don’t forget it’s in the oven and preheat the oven without taking out the rice. :)

Same for the rice ingredients as with the play dough ingredients, I keep everything on the craft shelf. 

• Total Cost: $15 for materials

Winter Woodland Themed Sensory Playscape:

For this activity, you will need the playdough you made earlier and the following items:

• Cookie Sheet
• Woodland Creatures
• Fencing
• Ice Cubes
• Snow Balls
• Shelter

You can absolutely substitute any of the above items with things you have around your household and….anything you can find around the house is going to reduce the cost of this activity!

One of the things I do with the supplies is to only pull these out for when we do sensory bins. It keeps everything feel fresh, in my opinion. And..my daughter doesn’t tire of the seeing the same supplies so it feels new to her!  So, these Winter Woodland Theme playscape supplies can easily turn into a Spring Social or Summertime Soiree playscape and I’ll use the ice cubes and snow balls for an Arctic Theme one later this winter or again next season.  

Below is a recipe of sorts for how to put this activity together. Be sure to check out my Instagram stories and reels to see more!

1. On the cookie sheet, create a landscape that includes creating a stream with the blue playdough, some grassy areas with the green playdough and some dirt/hill with the brown/natural playdough.  Also, leave a little playdough on the side so your kiddo can add what they want to the playscape.

2. Add the animal figurines.  Grab them from your kiddo’s bins, or if you need a themed set or a refresh of animals, I love these ones.

3. Add some fencing (kids love fences!) in the dirt/natural areas and some shelter.  I love using party hats and creating an opening for creatures to move in and out of.

4. Add some ice to the stream.

5. Add a bowl of snow (cotton snow balls) on the side.

6. The last step here is to keep it simple.  The more simple this playscape is, the more imagination play can happen.  As much as it is tempting to add all the animals, ice cubes or cotton snow balls to the playscape, a less is more approach encourages creativity and problem solving.  And, if I’m being honest, it encourages them to play with the sensory activity longer than if the creativity was supplied for them.

7. To use this playscape over multiple days, be sure to add/take away things each day to give it a refresh.  *Be sure, if you are leaving your playdough on a cookie sheet, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

• Total Cost: $51 for materials

Mid-Winter Medallion Search Sensory Activity:

For this activity, we are working on fine motor skills along with some early literacy skills and/or cognitive skills with matching. You can use this activity TWICE by changing the activity and rice color.  You will have plenty of medallions to use this at least 4 times.  Below is a recipe of sorts for how to put this activity together. Be sure to check out my Instagram stories and reels to see more!

You will need one of the colored rices you made earlier and the following items:

• Wooden Medallions
  • To make these medallions last longer, instead of directly writing on the medallions for the activities, you can:
    • Trace the medallions on paper, cut out the outlines and write on these cutouts.  You will then want to tape them onto the medallions.  
    • Paint the medallions afterwards to be able to write again on them.
• Children Size Tongs
• Markers
• Paper
• An aluminum pan

Here’s how it works:

1. Add the one colored rice to the aluminum pan.  Based on the activity you choose, you will then bury the medallions into the rice.  Encourage your child to find the medallions with the tongs and match them to the corresponding paper for the activity you have chosen.
   1. Activities can include:
      1. On the wooden medallions, you can draw shapes.  On a piece of paper, you will draw a corresponding shape.  Once your child finds a medallion, they will place it on the corresponding shape on the piece of paper.

2. On the wooden medallions, you can write all upper-case letters.  On a piece of paper, you will write upper-case letters.  Once your child finds a medallion, they will place it on the corresponding letter on the piece of paper.

3. On the wooden medallion, you can write all lower-case letters.  On the piece of paper, you will write UPPER-CASE letters.  Once your child finds a medallion, they will place it on the correct UPPER-CASE letter it corresponds to.

4. On the wooden medallions, you can write numbers and have your child match the numbers on the medallions to those on the piece of paper.

5. For emerging addition and subtraction skills, you can write numbers on the medallions, and have your child match the number of the medallion to the correct addition or subtraction problem that would produce that answer.

6. For emerging literacy skills, you will need a second aluminum pan with the second colored rice.  This activity will work on consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.  In one pan, you will add all the consonant letters and in the other pan, you will add the vowel letters.  For this activity, I suggest coming up with your CVC words on paper FIRST.  This way you know how many of which letters you need to add to the different pans.  I would encourage you to include letters that won’t be in the CVC words for a little extra challenge.    On the paper, you will have CVC words and your kiddo will find the consonant letters and vowel letters to match a word.  For those who need a challenge, you can take away the paper and have kiddos come up with the words without any guide.
   1. Some ideas for CVC words can include: CAT, TAP, HAT, WAG, BED, RED, FIT, HIT, SIT, DOG, HOG, JOB, HUB, CUT, BUS
7. For a final activity, just when the “Argh, they NEED to go back to school” feelings set it, think about combining the colored rice with some animal figurines, small cars, some fence, and laying down a towel to collect the rice, and let them go crazy with their imagination!

• Total Cost: $23 for materials

Summary:

Vacation weeks can be really tough for finding activities AND staying within a budget.  My hope is that you are able to take 1 thing away from this guide and incorporate it into your February break!  Or…if you add  all the activities into your week, you will find that all of these activities cost $213 for a family of four (or about $42/day)!

See below for a sample schedule and a list of supplies for the sensory activities!

Sample Schedule and Cost Breakdown

• Monday: Pineland Farms and Bowling and Sensory Activities

• Tuesday:  Visiting the Library and Sensory Activities

• Wednesday: Community Pool/Open Swim and Sensory Activities

• Thursday: An Outdoor Movement Project Recommended Trail and Sensory Activities

• Friday: Children Museum and Sensory Activities

Total Cost for the Week: $213/Average Cost per Day: $42

Sensory Supply List

Play Dough:

•  Flour
• Cooking Oil
• Cream of Tartar
• Food Coloring 
• Salt 
• Strapped for time? Check out Reny’s for a great deal on playdough or purchase Play-Doh here (you’ll want two set of these)

Rice:

•  White uncooked rice
•  White vinegar 
• Gel food coloring 
• Plastic baggies
• Wax paper or Parchment Paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Strapped for time? Here is a great option.  You’ll want at least 8 cups worth for the activities

Winter Woodland Activity:

• Cookie Sheet
• Woodland Creatures
• Fencing
• Ice Cubes
• Snow Balls
• Shelter

Sensory Medallion Activity:

• Wooden Medallions
• Children Size Tongs
• Markers
• Paper
• An aluminum pan

Thank you so much for following along!  If you choose to add something from this guide into your February break, I would LOVE to hear from you!  Leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram!

Love, Natalie

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